The newest of my creations. Built following instructions found in London Power’s Speaker Book, this ‘small’ cabinet is a true beast, debunking once more the 4×12 cab myths about loudness etc. Its design allows for clever placing anywhere inside the room, while at the same tine the lower detuned port allows the speaker’s full range of frequencies to escape. It really gives the feeling of a more wide angle of dispersion, which helps the player a lot.

Detuned 1×10 cabinet

It’s built with 19mm thick MDF, the speaker element itself being a Celestion Vintage 10″ rated at 60W. The grille cloth (see next picture) is made retractable using black velcro.

As you can see from the picture above, there are 2 parallel input jacks on the left of the speaker, as opposed to the norm where the jacks are situated on the back cover. This is because this particular speaker is part of my gear and it will be sitting in front of me, facing towards my direction. But more on this later…

A smaller re-incarnation of the F12, the F10 isolation cabinet had 2 XLR lines and a speaker line, but without the confort of placing the speaker at different angles. There was the possibility of moving the mics around a bit but that was all.
This cab was also used at a live concert with success, however.

Some years ago I started experimenting with isolation boxes. The first one I made was made of cheap wood and stone fiber. Inside it was a 12″ cab with a Jensen 100W speaker. Having an SM57 inside I could record at full power, yet the bass frequencies coming out from that box were audible, although not that much. Having the box at the balcony I could only listen a hum from it while listening to what the mic inside it was ‘hearing’ through my monitors.
That iso-box saw live action when I played live with my band, ‘Anelixis’, back in 2005. I had used a powered monitor as a stage speaker and a Marshall 50W… I can’t remember the model, though…

Since that iso-box had inherent design problems (sound isolation problems and static waves) I built a second one, this time using plywood, gypsum blocks, stone fiber and an auralex-type foil. This is the result:

Its weight was approximately 80kg. Its’ drawback was still the static waves… Yet with careful mic or speaker placement you could easily counter their effect. (You see, when you build stuff like that, you have to have the opposite walls not parallel to each other). I learnt that the hard way, but it was fun!
This box had 2 XLR lines built-in and a speaker cable line.

Here is another pic with a sketchy 10″ speaker inside. The space was enough for various mic placements :

This is a 4×12″ detuned cabinet I built back in 2008 for Christoforos Gorantwnakis. On top is the Formyx 5W Blues Head.
The speakers are Celestions, 2 x G12 Vintage 30 @ 60W and 2 x G12K @ 100 Watts. Pay attention to the HUGE port on the lower side of the cab.

2 Gain stages, 1x 12AX7, 1x 12AT7 for the FX loop, 1x 6V6 or 1xEL84 at the power stage.
Steel chassis enclosed in a magnetic confinement cage at the inside of the wooden outfit.

Here it is with her dedicated cabinet, a ‘detuned design’ 1×10 cab a la London Power, in the same wooden finish. The speaker is a Celestion G10 Vintage at 60W.

The picture was taken at Music Station musical instrument store in Patras, during the time I was working there as a salesman at the Soundcard/Music Literature Dept, sometimes lending a hand at the Instrument Repairs Dept.

Some imperfections and “injuries” are visible on the wood due to live concert usage! :)
A great amp for playing the Blues/Hard rock at home or at small venues. You may need to mic it to a monitor for listening to it through the drums!!! :)